, and
handed it to his companion.

Crochard studied it closely.

"You have, of course, remarked the German 'S,'" he said, at last "I
thought so. Now the telegram which arrived too late."

Lepine passed it over obediently.

Crochard read it and re-read it, a strange light in his eyes.

"And now the other one," he said, finally.

Lepine stared at him.

"How do you know there is another one?" he demanded.

"Of course there is another one!" retorted Crochard, impatiently. "Any
fool would know that!"

Still staring, Lepine handed him the second sheet of tissue.

Crochard took one glance at it; then he looked at his companion.

"Do you mean to say, Lepine," he asked, "that, in the face of these
telegrams, you remain unconvinced--that you do not see the danger?"

"I see no danger," repeated the Prefect, doggedly.

"And yet I tell you, Lepine," said Crochard, leaning forward across the
table and speaking in deadliest earnest, "that the danger is desperate.
You are blind to it, a thing which astonishes me; M. Delcasse can do
nothing--his hands are tied by the red tape of his position. There
remains only Crochard! If I sit idle, if I fold my hands, within a
month Germany will declare war and will sweep over France like a
pestilence. Yesterday she struck the first blow; I tremble to think what
the second may be!"

"But war!" protested Lepine. "Nonsense! For war there must be a cause."

"A pretext will do--and a pretext can always be found. Already Germany
is preparing her pretext: she has demanded equal rights with France in
Morocco--a preposterous demand, and one which France can never grant.
What cares Germany about Morocco? Nothing! But the pretext must be
ready. And now, Lepine," he added, pushing back the papers, and speaking
in another tone, "I will tell you why I have come to you: I should
prefer to work alone; but, in the first place, it was necessary to
provide a means of access to M. Delcasse; in the second place, you got
these papers, where I might have failed; in the third place, there are
certain questions to which you can get an answer more easily than I."

"What are the questions?" asked Lepine, moved, in spite of himself, by
Crochard's manner.

"There are two to which I would ask you to get answers at once. The
first: does the government maintain, or has it authorised, any wireless
stations in the town or in the neighbourhood? The second: have the
wireless operators on any of the battleships no